BENCH AT THE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE

TAMSIN CUNNINGHAM

Whilst the wider city can be a place characterised by movement of crowds, spectacle, landmark and anonymity, the Closes seem to me places for individual journeys, rich in small details. They are narrow, human scale and jostling with multi-layered and contradictory narratives. I’m interested in the gradation of space in the city and how the intimate scale and focus of these spaces opens up the opportunity to move differently; slowing pace, pausing, taking in surroundings in ways that the wide open street doesn’t afford.

The bench at the mid way point in the steep ascent of Carrubbers Close takes the narrow scale of the close and makes it yet smaller; a space to envelop one, two, maybe three people. The bench also provides an anchor point for From the Sky to the Centre of the Earth: a sound piece by Tommy Perman and Rob St John.

At it’s back, on the other side of the wall lies the Garden of Remembrance; a place of peace, quiet and sanctity. I’m fascinated by the proximity and juxtaposition of these two vastly different spaces and the opportunity that both provide for contemplation, focus and pause.